Tools such as power miter saws are often used to perform cuts in precise places on a workpiece. The workpiece may be wood, aluminum, plastic, PVC or a variety of materials that may be cut by a powered circular saw. A common workpiece used in miter saws is wood trim. However, a variety of different things may be cut with a miter saw.
Many miter saws are adjustable on at least two axes allowing them to make both miter cuts and bevel cuts. Because of the degree of precision often desired when making such cuts, the position of the workpiece can be important in order to achieve a desired cut. An operator of a power miter saw may use a variety of devices in order to determine where a cut is going to occur. For example, some miter saws have guidance systems which display a laser over a part of the workpiece that will be cut when the blade is lowered. If it is apparent to the operator of the saw that the workpiece is not in the exact position to achieve a cut in a desired place, the operator will then move the workpiece in the desired position and then resight where the cut will be using guides such as a laser guide or other guiding systems or techniques to determine if the workpiece has been moved to the desired position. In other instances, a small test cut is made and then the workpiece is moved a small amount to improve the accuracy of the cut.
The workpiece itself may be a little bit large, bulky, and not always easy to work with as far as adjusting it to move a relatively small amount. Often an operator of a miter saw has one hand holding the handle of the saw and the other hand holding the workpiece. If the workpiece needs to be moved, and if two hands are required to move the workpiece, the operator will let go of the saw and reposition the workpiece, then reposition a hand back on the miter saw handle.
Some guide systems such as laser guides may be actuated by an operator's hand on the miter saw. By removing an operator's hand from the miter saw in order to reposition the workpiece, the laser may turn off, thus causing the operator to have to reposition the workpiece without the benefit of the laser guide. Thus, with some miter saws positioning the workpiece may be an iterative process where the operator must use a guide system and reposition the workpiece several times before the workpiece is in a desired position. Such an iterative process can be time consuming and may at times lead to an imprecise cut.
Accordingly, it is desirable to provide a method and apparatus that can, in some embodiments in accordance with the invention, allow a workpiece to be moved on a miter saw without necessarily causing the repositioning of an operator's hands from a cutting position (i.e. one hand securing the workpiece and the other hand holding the handle of the miter saw).
It is also desirable in some embodiments to provide a method and apparatus that permits the workpiece to be moved on a miter saw while a guiding system such as a laser guiding system is engaged thus allowing an operator of the miter saw to determine when the workpiece is in a desired position and leave the workpiece in the desired position once it is determined to be correctly positioned.
It is further desirable, in some embodiments, to provide a method and apparatus to move a workpiece with respect to a saw blade to put the workpiece in a desired position.